Sticky Footer for Mobile: Faster Navigation

Written by Nathan Bolton

Websites should be designed to look and function well on a variety of devices. We at Bone Creative use a variety of techniques to achieve this. One successful pattern that we’ve found is the sticky footer for mobile devices.

Every website Bone produces for mobile has the same sticky footer. And it often includes phone, email and buy now buttons. By implementing this technique, your customers never need to think twice on how to purchase your services or engage.

Location

Conventional wisdom states that menus should be placed at the top of a website. But we position the sticky footer at the bottom of the screen for ergonomic reasons. When holding your phone, it’s easy to tap the lower part of the screen with your thumb. The top half of the screen is much harder to access, especially the corner diagonal from your thumb.

Always Accessible

Usability studies consistently laud sticky menus for increasing the speed users can navigate websites. The reasons for that are clear. You don’t have to search for sticky menus, because they’re always “stuck” to the same part of the screen. There’s no downtime between when the visitor finishes their task on the webpage and wants to take another action. When the visitor is ready to act, they can do so immediately.

There When You Need It

Like all the responsive design techniques we use, the sticky footer only appears when it makes the most sense. You hold and interact with other devices differently than your phone. So our sticky footer only appears for phones, where it’s most useful.

Conclusion

The sticky footer for mobile is just one of the ways we customize sites to adapt to every device. Your website should be as intuitive as possible, and this technique helps your customers access what they need.

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